The garden that keeps on giving

One project that I had been bugging Dan all through winter about was having my very own vegetable garden. I grew up “helping” my Dad in the backyard with ours, so it only made sense that I have a garden at my own house. (And by helping, I mean that I constantly complained about watering, but was more than happy to help taste test when the veggies grew in.)

Dan and I went back and forth on a few ideas for where, and how high, to build the garden. We wanted something away from the house, and high enough up that we weren’t feeding our neighborhood of bunnies that love to come visit our yard. In the end we decided to build a 12×3 garden along the back fence.

We ended up with 10, 6 ft. cedar planks to build the garden. But first, Dan put a few 2x4s in the ground for the middle and ends, so we’d have something to nail the planks to. And here’s how it came along…

Dan also added a small ledge along the top of the cedar planks and painted them black. And while cedar is good at weathering storms and doesn’t absorb much moisture, we still added a layer of poly just to be safe.

Once it was built, the fun began. We went to our favorite store to pick up soil and came home with 12 bags. That should be enough for a 12×3 garden, right? Absolutely wrong. I went back later that day to pick up 12 more. Guess what? Still not enough. The next morning, I grabbed another 6, and finally filled the garden to about the two/thirds mark, which is where we wanted to be.

We also picked out our veggies, which I was so excited to do. Some squash, cucumbers, carrots, green beans, peas, watermelon, and a few different peppers.

Two packets of each should be enough, right? Ha. Way more than enough. Our garden is now overgrowing and I’ve been constantly thinning out plants and passing them along to my dad to plant in his garden. Funny how everything comes full circle, huh?

Dan and Katie

Our neighbors think we're crazy, and our family probably does too. We're documenting all of our adventures and mishaps of falling in love with and renovating a 1930 fixer upper. We're in the midst of renovating our dream home, and squeezing in some DIY along the way.